ACLU says NECAP waiver policy is a completely arbitrary hodgepodge’

Friday

Jan 24, 2014 at 12:01 AM

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union says that some school districts do not have a waiver policy in place for the NECAP test while others are inconsistent or incomplete.In...

Linda Borg Journal Staff Writer @lborgprojocom

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union says that some school districts do not have a waiver policy in place for the NECAP test while others are inconsistent or incomplete.

In a letter to the state Board of Education, ACLU executive director Steven Brown, a relentless critic of high-stakes testing, again urged the board to abolish using the NECAP test as one of several requirements for high school graduation.

“The waiver policy is, in many instances, a completely arbitrary hodgepodge of inconsistent, incomplete and poorly advertised policies that can only leave parents understandably anxious and perplexed,” Brown wrote in a Jan. 17 letter.

The ACLU in November filed an opens records request with all school districts to obtain copies of their waiver policies. According to the ACLU’s findings, 11 districts had no waiver policy or didn’t provide documents, 6 adopted the model provided by the state Education Department, 5 made slight changes to it and 9 developed their own policies.

However, the ACLU acknowledged that their data are now dated. The Providence Journal found that several districts listed as having no policies do, in fact, have them or are in the process of finalizing them.

In a statement Thursday, Deborah A. Gist, state education commissioner, said that the diploma system recognizes that, for some students, the state test is not a valid means of determining proficiency.

“Once they have completed the required testing sequence,” Gist wrote, “these students are eligible for a waiver from this component of the diploma system if they provide other evidence of content mastery.”

Ultimately, Gist said, school districts have the autonomy and authority to make their own decisions about granting waivers.

The Education Department recently issued a blanket waiver that applies to students who have been admitted into a two- or four-year college, provided the college is not an open enrollment institution such as the Community of College of Rhode Island.

But the ACLU says there is confusion over when a student can apply for a waiver from the NECAP. According to state guidelines, a student can seek a waiver if he or she has taken the NECAP twice, failed to score partially proficient on the test or failed to show improvement.

But Rene Fontaine, 53, whose daughter is a senior at Cumberland High School, said he has received mixed signals. His daughter didn’t pass the test as a junior and retook it this fall.

When Fontaine received a letter from the principal about waiver process, it didn’t mention the college waiver policy. Fontaine inquired and the principal said it was true but added that his child must first take an alternate test and retake the NECAP for the third time this spring.

“I’m more frustrated than anything else,” Fontaine said. “They are saying there is a waiver but they are not saying exactly what it is. I’m getting different information depending on who I talk to.”

Meanwhile, Brown says there is nothing in Cumberland’s waiver policy that that says the NECAP must be taken three times.

“In any event,” he wrote, “parents in Cumberland have absolutely no clue about this exemption because it has not been brought to their attention in any way.”